Open Letter from Matt Dixon


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Open Letter from Matt Dixon Making the Virtual Training Squad work for you 2013 has been a very successful year for the Virtual Training Squad (VTS), in fact, in July of 2012 it was barely more than just a vision. The VTS came to life with the initial launch of Post-Season in October 2012 and has since evolved to support a growing number of athletes on the journey with Virtual Training Squad. Along the way we have seen some truly amazing evolution and performances by our athletes. The team and I have been truly humbled the by the great reception and results of the VTS athletes in this inaugural season! We are very pleased with our journey so far, but this is not a victory lap, in fact we are just getting started. We have bigger and better things planned for the future ahead. Although we are pleased with how far we’ve come, it has not been perfect, and one of the things we failed to deliver up the level we aim for was a compelling, easy to understand, simple explanation of the Virtual Training Squad and how your personal racing schedule can be completely supported by purplepatch and the VTS. Today, I’d like to summarize the Virtual Training Squad, work through a sample athlete, and clarify how the Virtual Training Squad can work in delivering a personalized training solution for you. One of my mantras is “purplepatch views training as a cyclical progression, layering training phases upon previous phases, as well as seasons upon seasons.” Without that long-term, big picture view, it will be very difficult to impossible to optimize your performance in endurance sports, particularly when you add in the challenges of daily life (work, family, etc.) I call this long-term, continuous progression of training, the “river [of training]”, and it is the philosophical backbone at the core of the Virtual Training Squad. If you’ve visited the virtual training squad web-page, you’ve seen the result of our drive to deliver this river of training with our “season long vision” diagram (shown below.)

Working through the growing pains of delivering the Virtual Training Squad in 2013, has helped to clarify aspects of our vision, but first, I want to spend a couple minutes on the mechanics and structure of the Virtual Training Squad training programs themselves, as it will ensure a common background when we work through the example season. If you are a purplepatch athlete, you know we build each training week with Key Foundational Sessions, Recommended Sessions, and Optional Sessions for all three disciplines, Swim, Bike and Run. What may not be clear, is that we also design the Recommended and Optional sessions to support the Key Foundational Sessions. Each week then fits together to create a phase to address and deliver specific adaptations, for example, in Pre-Season, we focus on building the physiology for the hard work ahead later in the season, in Sustainable power, we focus on just that, increasing sustainable power potential. To ensure athletes are clear regarding the goals and to ensure each athlete is supported, the Virtual Training Squad also has several touch points directly with me (weekly overview videos + Meetings with Matt.) We want the Virtual Training Squad to share a common

journey in the drive for each individual to reach their optimal performance. To help athletes and purplepatch stay in tune with the goals of training for this week, this month, this phase, we number each week of the season. That means on week 28, there will be Key Sessions for week 28, which we might label Key Bike 28.1 and Key Bike 28.2, the weekly overview will be specifically targeted for week 28, etc. All aspects of the Virtual Training Squad will be anchored around the fact that this is the 28th week of the river of training. The river of training is only the starting point. We offer many customizations with the obvious ones being scaling your specific training plan based on ability, experience and time available for training. The customizations I want to discuss today, however, is a level up, it is your personal racing schedule, that is your season view. It is the point of all this training after all, to perform well on race day, and having a properly structured season will help your performances improve season after season. To properly anchor the season, each athlete will prioritize their races as “A” or “B” races, “A” being the Top priority for the season, “B” races are used to support the athlete’s evolutions to achieve their goals in the “A” race. We then have specific race preparation and recovery for your “A” and “B” races, ranging from 1week to 8-weeks. (If you have any questions, don’t worry, plan support is here to help.) The combination of the VTS river of training with the specific Race Build and Recovery allows each and every member of the VTS to tailor their racing season to their needs. To drive home the point, lets work through an example. Example Athlete: Has sights set on Lake Placid 2014, and is ready to start training and signs up for the Virtual Training Squad in November 2013. We learn the athlete has also planned some Spring races (Oceanside & St. George.) The Resulting Race Schedule is as follows: A-Race: IM Lake Placid, July 27, 2014 B-Races: Oceanside 70.3, March 29, 2014 IM70.3 St. George, May 3rd, 2014

I’ve plotted what the customized season would be for this athlete, against the back-drop of the river of training in the image below. (For a full size image on the web click here: ) What you can see, is that the athlete joins the Virtual Training Squad on the second week of November, and starts training on ‘Week 4’ of the river. The athlete will follow the river of training, with the VTS throughout the Winter months and into early Spring 2014. The athlete will build very good fitness in Post-Season and Pre-Season phases, but won’t be as sharp as they will be later in the year. However, their fitness level is high-enough to participate in early season races. The customizations begin in March, to support the early season races where the athlete will ‘drop off the river’ in week 23, ahead of the Oceanside 70.3, to follow a specific race preparation plan. Following the race, the athlete follows a 1-week recovery program before rejoining the VTS and the river of training on week 25 to work on developing sustainable power with the rest of the Virtual Training Squad. A similar sequence will be

followed around the St. George 70.3 race, where the athlete drops off the river to follow a specific race build and recovery. After St. George 70.3, we are in mid-May, and IM Lake Placid is on the horizon, and due to the importance of the “A” race (Lake Placid), the athlete will use a special VTS Race-Build program, 8 weeks before race day, instead of the 1 week lead-in to the “B” race 70.3’s. The 8-Week VTS Race Build is a day-by-day plan leading the athlete from 8-weeks out right into race day. The recovery from an IRONMAN is also a longer due to the higher impact of the race, so the athlete will rejoin the river of training two weeks after Lake Placid, instead of 1 week as previously done. During the 8week lead-in to Lake Placid the Virtual Training Squad will continue through weeks 33-40, while this particular athlete follows the VTS Race Build plan. With the addition of specific Race Build Plans layered on top of the river of training, we can tailor the season to meet your goals, and if there any issues we will hold your hand through the process. We’re here to help you build a successful season! In closing, I want to mention a few things planned for the 2014 Virtual Training Squad season: The first, is monthly billing starting in October 2013 as the Virtual Training Squad shifts to a subscription model. All you will need to do is sign-up for the Virtual Training Squad and your done, no more having to buy a plan several times a year. The second, and you’ve already seen hints of this, is updated branding. The first evolution is our new badge (shown to the right.) We have much more planned related to our entire platform, but I will update the purplepatch community on those activities seperately. For now, I will sign-off, I hope this help explains how to make the Virtual Training Squad work for you. I hope you’ll join us on the Virtual Training Squad for your 2014 Season!

Cheers, Matt Dixon and the purplepatch team